


Sparks

by LUC1FORM



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Fluff and Angst, Gen, Quests, Short Stories, one shots
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-15 19:54:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 10,572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29441478
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LUC1FORM/pseuds/LUC1FORM
Summary: What if the gods aren’t quite done interfering  with demigods’ lives?After the Trials of Apollo, the campers, both Greek and Roman, are left with a lot of idle time. In other words, the perfect time for minor quests, mishaps, and a whole lot of confusion. In moving forward, they will have good times, bad times, and the opportunity to fill the missing spaces in their lives.FEATURING 5 STORIES:Hades Misplaces An Invisible Helmet - starring Nico di AngeloAnd Here's Your Side of Gold - starring Hazel LevesqueMy Boyfriend Brings Us A Gift From The Underworld - starring Will SolaceThe Hunters of Artemis Obliterate A Couple of Wild Death Beasts - starring Reyna Ramírez-ArellanoI Accidentally Flood My College - starring Percy JacksonOr, ONE SHOTS AND FLUFFDisclaimer: All rights belong to Rick Riordan.Kudos + comment if you like please!!
Relationships: Nico di Angelo/Will Solace
Kudos: 15





	1. Hades Misplaces An Invisible Helmet

**Author's Note:**

> In honor of the release of the rights to the Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief musical, I decided to post these short one-shots I wrote a while ago. You can read them in any order you want, except for Hades Misplaces and Invisible Helmet and My Boyfriend Brings Us A Gift From The Underworld, which are in the order listed above. I think we could all use a little fun during the pandemic while there is still a lot of indecisiveness about where to go from here. Please note that I wrote these a few months prior to the release of The Tower of Nero, so my Apollo-pertaining depictions were just me predicting ahead, which actually went better than anticipated, so if there are any inaccuracies, don't mind them. I would LOVE to see any comments, whether about Nico/Will or the amazing stage skills of Chris McCarrell (did you know he was Joly and the u/s for Marius Pontmercy in the 2014 Les Mis revival? He makes an appearance in Ep. 2 of Ramin Karimloo's vlog) and, again (here's my cringy catchphrase for comments) KEEP IT CLEAN AND DON'T BE MEAN! Excited to hear what you think!  
> Set fire to the stars,  
> -LUC1FORM
> 
> All rights belong to Rick Riordan.

I did not intend to end up in the Underworld.

At first, I thought I had accidentally shadow-traveled or something, but then I realized that a shadow had picked me up rather than me picking up a shadow, like the time Persephone had a little mishap with a secret sword and brought Percy, Thalia, and I together.

But then there I was, standing right in Hades’s throne room. Persephone stood glowering at me as usual, not noticing the wilting flower in her hand.

“Nico,” said Hades. “I’m glad you made it.”

“Thanks, dad.” I said dryly. Nothing had changed down here, it seemed. The same lovely decor, though admittedly it was better than the cabin in Camp Half-Blood, which looked like the inside of a coffin.

“I’m in a bit of a predicament,” Hades said uneasily, rubbing bony hands together. “You see, Makaria has been on my case lately about the fact she can’t bless the recently deceased because death is running amok.” 

“Makaria?” I echoed cluelessly. There were so many different shades, ghosts, daemos, and spirits down here that I hadn’t met most of them. Or the better ones, anyway.

“Goddess of blessed death, and, ah, my daughter,” Hades concluded lamely. Persephone shot him a disapproving look.

To be honest, the last thing I needed was more relatives in the Underworld. Bianca was already here, and that hurt enough, and it was even worse that whenever I looked I could never find her. Hazel was great, but I was kind of done with people just being like, _surprise! Here’s another half sibling for you. Enjoy!_

“Just get to the point already,” I said impatiently. The more anxious my father got, the colder the air became, and my aviator jacket was doing fairly little to reduce the chill.

“He’s missing the helm of darkness.” said Persephone.

“You lost your most valuable weapon,” I repeated incredulously. The helm of darkness allowed users to become not only invisible, but also pass through walls, become part of shadow, and be neither touched, seen, or heard.

“I just set it down somewhere and then it was gone! And the thing is,” Hades said almost apologetically, “I can’t find it because it’s invisible.”

 _Wow, dad._ That sure made things simpler.

“Don’t you have some, like, magical wheat or something to find it?” I asked Persephone, who continued glowering.

“That would be my mother,” she said. “Always about the wheat. And cereal. Do you know what happened last time I refused her cereal?”

“I’d rather not,” I muttered.

“Take this,” said Hades quickly, shoving what looked like a flower pot filled with mint at me.

“Why do I need mint?” I asked.

“It’s not mint, dear, it’s _Minthe_ ,” said Persephone gleefully. “This is what happens to nymphs who have affairs behind the back of the goddess of springtime!”

Hades shifted awkwardly. “Anyway, she’ll—I mean, the mint—will be able to tell when you’re nearing danger. Now, off you go.”

Ironic, because I definitely need a mint plant to help me sense danger. Instead, I walked out of the throne room.

I felt really stupid walking around with a pot of mint, and evidently, the Furies thought so, too. They snickered and cackled maniacally when I walked by.

“Shut up,” I said irritably, which made them cackle louder. I was about to pass them by when I stopped.

“Do you know where I can find Makaria?” I asked. Megaera responded. 

“Off trying to bless the newly departed,” she croaked. 

“Which would be where?”

“I don’t see why you’re bothering,” rasped Tisiphone, “When you could just pay a visit to death.”

For a second, I thought they were threatening me before I realized they meant death with a capital D, as in a capital T for Thanatos.

“Um...why?” I said, feeling exceptionally slow today.

“The accused must stand in court!” screeched Alecto. “No acquittals!”

It seemed the Kindly Ones knew of the missing helmet. I wondered if the Underworld had some gossip network I didn’t know about. Seeing these three transform into psycho killer grannies and cackling about whatever was in the latest gossip blogs might be more disturbing than funny.

“He’s on break!” Alecto called after me.

“Okay,” I said to myself. “Time to pay a visit to Thanatos.”

Why was Thanatos on break? Don’t ask me. I thought death was a full-time job, but apparently not so. I found him relaxing in the garden in the center of Hades’s palace, the one with Persephone’s infamous pomegranate tree. His huge black wings were spread casually out, dominating a space so big it wouldn’t have fit in many places.

“Thanatos,” I greeted him.

He eyed me and sized me up, which sadly didn’t take very long. “Child of Hades?”

“Yep.”

“Come to find the helm of darkness?”

“Um...yep.”

Thanatos laid back against a poplar tree. If I wasn’t mistaken, that tree used to be another girl, the first of two (minty here being the second). At least my father didn’t run around with women on a daily basis (*cough* Zeus).

“Well, it’s not here,” he said. “You can see me, can’t you?”

I frowned. This didn’t seem right. Why couldn’t it be easy, just once? 

“So do you know who has it then?” I asked. Thanatos shrugged, and reached up and pulled a pomegranate from a tree, then ate it, skin, flesh, and all. Persephone’s famed pomegranates didn’t seem to affect Thanatos at all.

“I do.”

“Then why can’t you tell me?” I said, frustrated. My fingers danced over the pommel of my stygian iron sword by default.

“Are you threatening me?” Thanatos asked, closing his wings. “I do not take threats lightly, child of Hades.”

“Just tell me where the helm is!”

Thanatos shifted lazily. “Eurynomos has it.”

Eurynomos was the daemon of rotting corpses in the Underworld. He ate flesh and was like the original, Greek zombie. Why did he have the helm of darkness? I had no idea.

“Why didn’t you tell me this sooner?” I demanded.

“Because actually, it’s quite humorous to watch.”

“Humorous?!”

“Yes. He can just sneak up on you, strip you of flesh, and you wouldn’t even notice.” Personally, I did not see how this was humorous at all, but I went with it. Turning away from Thanatos, I tightened my grip on Minthe, and headed towards the most likely place to find a man-devouring daemon.

The Central Park entrance wasn’t too hard to find. Charon was busy ferrying down the river Styx in his Italian suits. When I passed through the gateway, sunlight streamed in. It reminded me of Will, shining annoyingly through every last crack and still brightening up everything. 

The second I stepped into the park, I sensed something. A presence, like a disturbance in the air. And there were clouds and shadows, now, obscuring the sunlight, which made me more irritated for some reason. It had to be the helm of darkness.

“Eurynomos!” I shouted. “I know you’re there.”

There was rustle of the wind, but no answer.

“Stop hiding!” I called. 

Instead, something emerged from behind me. 

It was a woman. Her complexion was flawless, her curly hair straightened, her posture immaculate. She wasn’t something one pegged as an immediate threat, but I knew better. It may have been possible that Eurynomos summoned her, or whatever it was.

“What are you?” I asked warily. Her smile from behind dazzlingly red lips turned into a pout.

“Gods, no need to be so rude. I’m only the person you’ve been waiting to meet your entire life!” she batted her eyelashes in a move she clearly thought was flattering. Clearly, she was supposed to have some sort of feminine allure. Evidently, it wasn’t working, or on me, at least.

“That’s not going to work on me.” I said, unimpressed. Sucks to be straight in situations like this.

“Seriously?” she tossed her hair over her shoulder in one fluid motion, huffing. “You’re, like, the third guy who’s said that to me this month. _Third!_ What is with this generation?”

What would Annabeth do? She would use her wits to deal with this, which seemed the only logical thing to do. One problem: flattery was not my department.

“Well, maybe you’re not that pretty,” I said, sounding like a complete failure at understanding girl psychology. “I haven’t seen you in _Vogue_ or anything.”

To be honest, I had no idea what _Vogue_ was. I know I had seen some Aphrodite girls cutting out pictures from a magazine, and I was pretty sure that had said _Vogue,_ but I might have been mistaken. There was also that slim chance it actually said _Aphrodite Weekly: Your one-stop guide to the latest trends and the goddess behind them._

I was pinning my hopes on _Vogue_.

“What?” she said, looking scandalized. “I deserve front covers!”

“Look,” I said. “I’m done playing games. Just tell me where the helm is.”

She turned to look at me, and her features changed. Her legs joined together into a long snake tail. Her fingernails sharpened into claws, and fangs slid out from her lower lip. She was like a snake-vampire crossover. Panic sparked in me for a second before I fell back on my usual fighting instincts. 

“As you wish, boy.”

I pulled out my stygian iron sword and dropped the pot of mint as she lunged at me. The flower pot shattered upon impact. I would have apologized to Minthe if I wasn’t already preoccupied. 

Her fingers scrabbled in midair where I had been seconds before. Her snakelike body whipped around, knocking the sword out of my hands. I lunged for the sword, which, unlike Percy’s, did not magically reappear in my hands, but not before she had scraped her claws down my forearm, peeling back my skin and leaving red welts. It burst into searing pain, but I ducked under her outstretched hands and scooped up my sword.

“You wanted to know who I am?” she hissed. “I am _Lamia Corintha,_ one of the Corinthian Vampiric Lamia!”

I let her keep talking, even though the sword was growing heavier in my hands. “I thought there was only one Lamia.”

She rolled her eyes. “Ugh, don’t confuse me with _that_ old hag. No, she’s, like, _so_ outdated. No, I feed upon the flesh and blood of handsome boys. You’re a bit scrawny, though. Like, _I_ have to worry about calories, but you don’t. She’s some ancient story. I’m, like, new and improved.”

I took that opportunity to gut her with my sword. Her form crumbled into black dust that swept away on the breeze, back from whence it came.

“Eurynomos!” I said. “I went through your vampire girl. Give. Me. The. Helm.”

A form materialized as the air rippled. Eurynomos was grey-blue, clawed, and you could see bones right through his flesh. “Fine.” he said. Honestly, I was surprised he could speak, because my sister Hazel had encountered some that were just senseless monsters serving some Roman emperor guy named Tarquin. “I was going to return it, anyway.”

“Then why did you even take it?” I demanded. Eurynomos shrugged.

“You know, to sneak up on victims then tear their flesh off. Usually, I just hear their screams all the time. _So_ annoying. Now they’re too shocked to make a sound! Much more appetizing that way.”

Personally, I couldn’t believe anyone would go through facing Hades’s wrath for a little bit of fun, but who knew. Eurynomos was apparently not joking, because he actually handed the helm, even though I eyed him warily. Making deals with zombies tended to not be a great idea. 

Still fingering my sword, I turned to him before making my way back to the Underworld. “You’re still in for Hades’s punishment of choice. Trying anything like this again, and you’re, well, signing your death warrant.”

I left him behind and returned to the darkness of the Underworld. I needed to have a talk with dad. I had just realized that the mint actually hadn’t helped me sense danger. Useless.

Another bolt of searing pain shot through my arm. I swore and burst through the opening to the throne room where I was greeted to a hushed conversation.

“It didn’t do anything, did it?” I heard Persephone cheerfully. 

“Ah, no. I just…”

“Needed to get her out of my eyesight. Good.”

“Yes, well, she was getting a little irritating.” agreed Hades.

“Hang on,” I said, barging in. “Are you telling me Minthe actually didn’t do anything?” my face felt hot and red and I had never hated Persephone more.

“You got the helm!” Hades said. He looked like he would have hugged me if he wasn’t the person who never hugged and for my expression.

“Eurynomos had it,” I said. “You better watch your subjects' senses of humor.”

Hades and Persephone exchanged a look.

“Well, off you go,” said Persephone. “Do your shadow-travel thing.”

“Oh gods,” I muttered. “Will is going to kill me.” 

But I stepped into the nearest shadow and let it engulf me anyway.


	2. And Here’s Your Side Of Gold

Life at Camp Jupiter seemed so different all of a sudden now that I was Praetor. Reyna was off with the Hunters of Artemis somewhere, which left me with a whole lot of responsibility. Even though Frank was always supportive, I felt that there was a lot more weight on my shoulders.

I had felt, with the exception of the campers, my biggest responsibility was finishing Jason’s work of building temples for all the minor gods, Greek and Roman. 

Well, I had gotten to work.

Now, alongside a shrine that said KYM in large capitals were about twenty more, including ones to Antevorte, Roman goddess of the future, Elpis, Greek god of hope and expectation, Coelus, Roman god of the sky, and Plutus, the Greek god of wealth. Some of the fauns had also insisted on one dedicated to Empanada, who was apparently the Roman goddess of openness, friendliness, and generosity. 

Most of the camp found this hilarious for obvious reasons.

Due to the fact that there was no _pontifex maximus_ anymore, with Octavian not counting and Jason dead, everyone had to pitch in to keep the shrines neat and tidy, plus distributing offerings.

With the summer solstice coming up, we had decided to brighten everything up by offering something to each of the gods. But who would do it? And what would be offered?

The answer?

A: Me. B: Random wealth from the ground.

Way to sacrifice your praetor.

I concentrated on the earth below me. It was like searching through mud to pull out a lost item: you could find a lot more of what you weren’t looking for than for what you were. 

I felt the tug of different metals underground and mentally sifted through them, pushing apart the rocks to locate the precious and semi-precious stones. There was an unusual number of them underneath the altars. Maybe that was one of the reasons they had been constructed in this particular spot.

Latching onto something particularly shiny, I mentally willed it to surface. The ground obeyed, and a few seconds later I was holding onto something I’d never seen before.

It was a thick chunk of rock, but when I turned it around I saw that jagged blue edges had formed in it. It didn't shine, but it had a dull luster and I knew that I had found a gem of some sort.

I set it down on Pluto’s altar. I doubted he would respond, but it would be great if he did, even though it wasn’t a pressing matter.

“Um, hello father,” I said. “I hope you accept this offering. It doesn’t look like much, and I’m not exactly sure what it is, but it seems possibly rare and expensive. If you could tell me what it is, that would be great.”

I wrote down my request on a sheet of paper and left it there, too, just in case he decided to answer.

I stood there for a while as the sun set, then swept into the Pluto cabin where I had a near perfect sleep. 

Near perfect. If you're a demigod, you always get dreams.

As soon as my eyes fluttered shut, I found myself standing in an endless dark void, a strange setting for a dream. There was not a person in sight. Then the darkness rippled like water, and parted. A shape loomed before me. A person. 

No, not any person. My father.

Though he was draped in black, precious metals and stones wreathed his helmet and the rest of his armor. I didn’t know what his Greek form looked like, but seeing as Hades was less inclined to wear the wealth of the Underworld, I personally preferred the Roman rendition of my father.

“Hazel,” he said. “I appreciate your offering. Very different. Exquisite, even.”

“You got it?” I asked, surprised. Dream me, like real me, also seemed to assume he'd ignore any summons, whether in a dream or in reality.

“I did,” he responded. I looked up, trying to see his expression, but his face was masked in darkness. I could see his closed hand, though. He was holding something.

Noticing my gaze, he opened it up and sitting inside his palm was the most beautiful gemstone I had ever seen. It was polished to the point that it was almost like a mirror, except that this reflected fractiles of light across the darkness rather than your own image. It was a deep, rich royal blue color, and it was so different from the raw version I’d pulled from the earth earlier, now cut geometrically. It was almost what you might have expected when you combined the sky and the sea into a small, one inch by one inch stone. It not only sparkled, it almost was made of sparks.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Benitoite,” he said. “Found in very few places around the world, and the only place to mine true gem quality material is found in only one part of California, a little farther south from where you are right now. It is one of the rarest gemstones in the world. You must be careful. You’ve already made the choice of offering this to me. Other gods think themselves higher, because I rule the Underworld. They will demand equal payment.”

“I’ll figure it out,” I promised.

“I hope you do,” Pluto said, and then he and the void melted away into a puddle of swirling shadows.

I woke up and looked outside the window. The sun was rising, filling the sky with bright yellow beams of light. Pluto’s warning seemed very distant.

“Have you seen any angry gods lately?” I asked Frank when I had organized everyone after breakfast. It was nice having a friend to share your duties with. 

“What?” said Frank. 

Frank, though free of his stick, was still the same as ever. Possibly more heroic and less confused, though. On most occasions.

“Never mind,” I said.

“No, really,” asked Frank. “What?”

I explained my discovery of the California benitoite reserves, Pluto appearing in my dream, and the warning he had left. I couldn't really see how the distribution was a problem, but I had learned not to underestimate how antsy and overactive gods and goddesses could get. And as a praetor, I couldn’t allow things to get out of hand.

Frank just shrugged, about as concerned as I was. “Why don’t you just go check now? Before the war games start.”

I took his advice.

I went over to the altars. I remembered when Reyna had promised that they would be completed the very weekend Jason had been returned to camp, only in a sad, dark box that seemed to consume everyone and cast a gloom that couldn’t entirely be lifted.

The idea had been a good one, except the list of gods and goddesses kept growing and growing, so in the one year that had passed since those events, we were still adding more, especially when we got campers with minor or unusual parentage.

I hadn’t finished with the offerings last night, so I repeated the process of concentrating on the earth below me. A pile of blood red rubies quickly surfaced, perfect for Bellona and Mars, who were war gods and goddesses among other things.

I placed those at the altars, then checked to see which ones I hadn’t gotten to get. Terpsichore was one of them. I quickly found uncut opals, which were a bit strange to be found in California.

I heard a voice as I turned around. “Why does Pluto get those rare, shiny ones?”

It was Mars. I gulped. The gods didn’t usually appear very often, and even if Mars was Frank’s father, he was still intimidating.

“Um. Sorry. I, uh, thought you might like these nice, bloody rubies,” I said, messing up my sentence horrifically.

“Well,” said Mars. “Pluto’s looked better. I’m not an idiot.”

“Yes, you are,” said another voice. This time it was Bellona. Two war patrons? Uh, oh. “I, however, am not. I know that benitoite is far more expensive than most gems. Excellent, revered war prizes.”

  
  


A couple more gods and goddesses whose names I didn’t even know also appeared with folded arms.

“Pluto already has enough precious metal and stones,” complained one of them.

“He doesn’t even help out you demigods most of the time. Why does he get riches when his distribution of power and control is so off-kilter?” questioned another. I think it was Nemesis, who was the same in Greek and Roman form.

Soon I was surrounded by a circle of prickly gods, all wanting to be better than the rest. I really should have heeded Pluto’s warning.

“Okay,” I said. “I’ll get you all benitoite if that’s what you want.” The situation was becoming increasingly weird.

The complaints stopped. Under the gaze of a dozen different gods, summoning the benitoite became more difficult. To get enough, I had to cast a wide mental net. Not all of it was even buried underground. 

The ground beneath me rumbled, and a huge chunk appeared in front of me. Great. Now how was I supposed to divide it?

“Um,” I said as the earth split again and a couple smaller chunks appeared. “I can give you a side of another precious metal?”

I really shouldn’t have said that.

Another squabble broke out, the point of focus being the big piece of benitoite. 

I rubbed my eyes. I was getting really tired, even though it was early morning, and the argument was giving me a headache. Gods were supposed to be responsible, not the other way around. Sure, they were helpful if they decided to aid you in a battle, but I really didn’t want to find out what happens when gods declare civil war on each other over a chunk of semi-precious minerals.

 _Come on,_ I pleaded to myself. _Just a few equal-sized pieces will do it._

Extending all of my focus on finding out where every last piece nearby was. My metal net expanded and expanded so the surface area I was pulling from grew greater. I knew benitoite well enough now to recognize it subconsciously. 

The earth below my feet shook. Rocks tumbled from loose places. The complaints and arguing stopped as the gods turned to look at me.

Trying not to become distracted, I closed my eyes. Raising my hands up, I will every last bit of it that I sensed underground to surface.

I didn’t expect what came next.

The ground split and cracked. Big and small pieces alike of the raw gemstone in its natural form surfaced. There was a collective silence.

I had never felt so drained before when using my gifts. It had always been small things, like retrieving swords, or a little bit more challenging things, like when I’d pulled up piles of treasure up from the Dalmation cliffside to appease Sciron.

This was a whole new level of big.

“Are you happy now?” I tried to demand, but it didn’t sound as intimidating as I hoped because I wasn’t a very intimidating person and it was half cut off by a yawn.

“This is a big piece,” said Mars, moving over to observe a chunk.

“Yes,” I agreed. “Now let me sleep.”

I curled up right there on the ground and shut my eyes.

I must have actually fallen asleep, because the next thing I knew, someone was shaking me awake. I looked up to see a shock of pink hair.

“Lavinia?” I asked. It was the Centurion of Fifth Cohort.

“Hazel?” she asked. “How long have you been napping here?” she gestured to the place.

I stood up. “I don’t know.”

“Frank sent me to find you,” Lavinia said. “No one had seen you for a couple of hours.”

“I’ve been pretty busy,” I admitted. “You probably wouldn’t believe with what if I tried to start telling you.”

She put her hands on her hips. “Try me. I’ve seen some pretty strange stuff.”

I looked around. All the pieces of benitoite were gone. Where to? I had no idea. But the angry gods and goddesses were gone, too, so I took that as a good sign.

“Okay,” I said. “I’ll be right back with you.”

My attention had quickly shifted. There was a rolled up, slightly singed piece of parchment on the Pluto altar which hadn’t been there before. No, wait. It was the same one I had left yesterday, but I could see writing on it.

Walking over, I picked it up. Words were seared into the paper in black, and the sentences looked like they were written in ashes and smoke. It was a response.

_Hazel. I did warn you others would not see me or you as their equal. They did want even more than you had given me, did they not? I must say, that was an impressive bit of summoning. I’d never seen anyone pull as much from the earth as you did. I think you might have uprooted a great deal of San Benito County’s wealth. Well. What’s past is past, but you would do better to heed my instructions and warning next time._

I folded over the paper and shoved it into my pocket. I had actually gotten a response from my father, even if it wasn’t really the response I wanted. But hey, it was progress.

“Are you coming?” called Lavinia from a little ways away.

“Yes,” I said, following her back. After all, it had just been another day as Praetor.


	3. My Boyfriend Brings Us A Gift From The Underworld

The argument Nico and I had this morning went something like this.

Nico glared at me. “You can’t stop me from shadow-traveling!”

“Yes, I can.” I said decisively. 

Nico’s face turned stormy. He was in a foul mood today, and whenever he was like that I couldn’t help being stubborn right back. “You’re not my mother!” he said.

A cold silence fell between us at the mention of Nico’s mother, Maria Di Angelo. I wasn’t trying to be his mother, but he had absolutely no care for himself.

“I don’t need to be your mother to know that you don’t care one whit about yourself! I can’t run after you all the time!” I said, trying to keep my voice steady.

Nico’s face flushed. “Then don’t!”

“I have to! Sometimes I feel like you wouldn’t even care if you were going to die!” I said.

“Well, maybe I wouldn’t!” Nico shouted. “Maybe I’d find Bianca!”

An invisible storm descended over us. I was frustrated at him for being so cynical all the time, and no matter how much I liked him, I still needed him to understand.

“You can’t change things that have already happened!” I said. “Just listen to me for once in your life, Nico!”

“That's it!” he stood up. “I don’t need you to take care of me anymore!” then he stormed away.

I could almost hear my dad, whom I had met recently, Apollo, laughing at both of us. I could also almost hear him saying  _ Hah! Yes you do!  _

I spent the rest of the day trying to shake our argument out of my head by listening to Kayla and Austin perform an impromptu concert, organizing every last one of my possessions, and going around for cabin inspection with Lou Ellen from Hecate cabin. 

Lou Ellen walked outside with her clipboard. “I think Athena cabin won. Again. Aphrodite was close but someone left a couple strands of hair in the sink. Disgusting.”

“Again?” I asked. The children of Athena almost always had the cleanest cabin, although I wasn’t even sure how that was possible with all the projects constantly going on inside.

She exited Athena Cabin while I looked around once more, just to double check they hadn’t slipped up somewhere. “Uh huh. And—uh, Nico’s back.”

“I’m not talking to Nico,” I said decidedly. 

“I don’t think you can avoid it,” Lou Ellen said. “He just shadow-traveled back.”

I pushed past Lou Ellen out the door. “He did WHAT?!”

Nico was standing a couple of feet away.

“Hi,” said Nico.

“Nico,” I said, “If you pass out, I am actually going to kill you. Who just said a couple of hours ago that they were done with my help? You did!”

“Get ready,” muttered Lou Ellen, then discreetly shuffled away.

“I don’t need help!” protested Nico, then promptly passed out.

“Argh!” I said. “Why do you do this to me?”

No response.

“Okay, Lord of Darkness,” I said, sighing. “I’ll get you some Gatorade.”

Ten minutes later we were sitting in the grass by the ever-burning fire pit. I looked over and noticed a girl sitting by the edge, stoking the flames. I was pretty sure I’d never seen her before. She smiled.

“That’s Hestia,” said Nico, following my gaze. “Not a lot of people notice her.”

Hestia was the goddess of the hearth who had given up her throne to Dionysus, or, as we knew him, Mr. D. It was a bit strange that Hestia had taken on the form of a little girl (although often gods liked to look younger), but it kind of made sense why she was sitting quietly in the middle of Camp Half-Blood. The flame of Olympus had moved right here, to New York.

“Well,” I said, “I may have never noticed her before, but I certainly noticed your absence. Where have you been? And why is your jacket all torn again.”

Nico looked at me guiltily. “Ah...nowhere. No reason.”

“Whatever it was, I bet it wasn’t Mrs. O’Leary being overly aggressive during playtime, because Percy has her wherever he is in New Rome, and that would mean you shadow-traveled twice, and you would be gone a lot longer.”

“That was a perfect excuse you just destroyed,” Nico complained. I kicked off my flip-flops. Nico flicked something off his torn jacket sleeve. It looked a lot like a seed. It landed in the grass and dug itself into the earth. 

“Did that thing just plant itself?” I asked. “I’m pretty sure plants aren’t supposed to plant themselves.”

“How would I know?” said Nico, throwing his hands up in the air. “Do I look like a child of Demeter?”

He inspected the sleeve for more random seeds, which is when I saw red skin beneath the tattered jacket.

“Nico,” I ordered, “Roll up your sleeve.”

“Will,” said Nico.

“Nope,” I said. “Don’t want to hear it. Doctor’s orders.”

He sighed and rolled up his sleeve, wincing, which revealed nasty set of bleeding gashes, like someone had run knife—length nails down his arm.

“Seriously,” I said. “Where have you been?”

“The Underworld,” Nico sighed. “Long story, but Hades lost a helmet. And I had to get it back. Except it was invisible, so-”

I grabbed his other arm. “You’re an idiot, you know that?”

“I’ve heard it before,” said Nico.

I pulled him to the deck of the Big House, grabbed a roll of bandages (I always come prepared, feel free to insert your applause) and wrapped up his arm while he bit down on his lip hard enough to make it crack.

“That’s what you get for saying you don’t need me to take care of you,” I said, finishing.

“Okay, no need to rub it in,” said Nico in a defeated tone.

We traipsed back to our starting point, my eyes going right past Hestia this time. When we got back to the field, there were three green and white flowering plants, except with an unhealthy, grayish looking tinge to them, that certainly hadn’t been there a little while before. It was like they had just appeared out of nowhere.

“Hang on,” I said. “Did an entire plant just grow and multiply in five minutes?”

On cue, we both watched as the plant multiplied twice more, two more stems springing up in close proximity. Then it did another time. And another time. And another time. And another—well, you get the idea.

“Okay, that’s weird,” said Nico. “I don’t even know how that’s happening. Or why it’s there. I feel like I’ve seen that plant before, but I can’t place it.”

“I know who probably knows,” I said.

“Miranda Gardiner,” we both said in unison and ran towards the Demeter cabin. I knocked on the door politely. Nico opened his mouth, probably to ask why I was bothering to knock, but then it swung open.

Billie Ng opened the door. “So, what’s happening?”

“There’s a random flowering plant multiplying,” I said at the same time Nico said, “A seed fell off my jacket and now it’s not a seed it’s a ton of plants.”

“Hold on” said Miranda, squeezing out of the obstructed doorway. “I’m coming.”

We led her to the plants.

“Holy Hades!” she said.

The plants had multiplied tenfold. A third of an acre was completely covered in the wild, unknown plants, and they were still spreading.

So yeah. Holy Hades was right.

“Do you know what it is?” I asked.

Miranda bent down by the stem level and inspected it. “Well, clearly, this isn’t supposed to be here. If I didn’t know better, I’d say it was-” she stood up. “Asphodel.

I threw a glance at Nico.

_ Sorry,  _ he mouthed.

“So.” Miranda planted her hands on her hips. “Which one of you has been to the Underworld recently?”

We all looked at Nico.

“Um….that would be me,” he said, and hesitantly lifted a hand into the air.

There was a pause as we watched more asphodel spring from the earth.

“I don’t know how to stop it!” said Miranda dejectedly. “We might be facing a full—camp infestation if we can’t get them removed right now.”

I looked up at the sky. “Godly assistance? Care to lend a hand? Maybe?”

No answer.

“Wow, thanks,” I grumbled. “I can’t always be a ray of sunshine, you know!” 

“Right,” said Miranda. “Time to get to work. Got to alert everyone.”

Nico was the designated door—knocker. We both decided he deserved the irritation of the entire camp for bringing the asphodel in the first place. The Ares cabin could now take their rage out on him. Or, they probably would have, if most people weren’t either terrified or made uneasy by the child of Hades.

Soon, the entirety of camp had arrived in the field. Unfortunately, the asphodel had already multiplied to twice the size the patch had been a little prior. 

“You’re telling me we have to uproot all of this?” complained Connor Stoll.

“Yup.” I said, bending down and yanking one up from the ground. Dirt sprayed everywhere, including over my shirt.

“No arguing,” said Chiron, who had come over to see what all the commotion was about.

Connor shut up.

For every stalk of asphodel we uprooted, another two popped up. It was like trying to kill a Hydra by chopping it’s heads off but without fire.

Wait. The Hydra had a weakness, and that was fire. All plants had weaknesses, which would be depriving them of their natural resources to keep up homeostasis: water and light.

But asphodel in the Underworld got neither water or light, so that didn’t make sense.

_ Think, Will,  _ I told myself.  _ What is in abundance in the Fields of Asphodel? _

“Misery,” I said. “Uncertainty.” 

I didn’t even realize I’d spoken out loud until Miranda looked at me. “What?”

“I was just thinking,” I said. “About what makes plants grow. And asphodel just occurs naturally in the Underworld, so there must be some aspect over here that is allowing it to multiply so rapidly that also is here.”

I looked over to Nico for support, being our resident Underworld expert. He looked at me, thinking. He looked really cute when he was using his brain.

“The thing that’s making these go nuts is an emotion,” he said. “There are seeds of doubt.”

A couple Athena kids groaned at the ill—timed pun.

“Maybe,” I said, “We were wrong. We have fought in so many battles in recent years, and camp still bears the scars. But maybe it’s not just the land that bears them. It’s also the people. What I said earlier. Misery. Uncertainty. Doubt. It’s not worrying about the future. It’s worrying about the past.” I looked at the crowd of confused campers. “We have to let go of our ghosts.”

Nico looked at me. I couldn’t tell what he was thinking, but this couldn’t be easy for him. It had been very difficult for him to come to terms with his mother and sister’s deaths, and still he found it hard sometimes.

“Are you sure?” asked Chiron.

“I can summon them,” said Nico. I whirled on him. Actual ghosts were never a good idea.

“Do it,” said Chiron. He never did anything without a good reason, so this better pay off.

I helped Nico prepare. I didn’t really want to have to catch him for the second time in a day, but if it stopped the Underworld from coming to camp, I’d do it.

Nico snapped his fingers, and a skeleton appeared from the ground. It began furiously digging a grave. When it was completed, Nico opened a can of Coke and poured it into the hole.

“Let the dead taste again,” he said. “Let them rise and take this offering. Let them remember.”

He pulled out a plate that was filled with the remains of breakfast and added that too.

“Will this work?” I hedged. Nico shrugged.

“I did it with a Happy Meal once.”

He began chanting in Ancient Greek. I wasn’t sure if it would work because it was daytime, but the air around us got darker and colder. Hazy figures appeared out of nowhere and bent down by the hole.

And suddenly, we were surrounded by them. Each had a recognizable face. Nico must have gotten stronger, because the only ghosts that appeared were campers, ones that had ties here.

I heard murmurs and shouts from the other campers, some meeting siblings again, some saying hello to lost friends. I was too apprehensive to look. I shut my eyes.

It turned out I didn’t need to look. All the voices of people who I both had and hadn’t known were all saying the same thing in one way or the other: “Don’t blame yourself. We made our choices. You don’t need to forget, but remember to look to the future rather than the past.”

I opened my eyes when I felt someone’s hand close around mine. It was Nico. Electric sparks seemed to fizzle between us and burn brighter than the memories.

“It worked,” he said. He was right. Not only had the ghosts returned to whence they came, the asphodel was receding, foot by foot. The flowering plants were going….going….gone.

“Of course it did,” I said. “We’re both geniuses.”

“I’m going to file a complaint with Persephone,” Nico said.

“That’s nice,” I said, then leaned over and kissed him.

Nico turned red.


	4. The Hunters of Artemis Obliterate A Couple of Wild Death Beasts

This trek through the Muir Woods State Park forest was definitely not going quite the way it had been initially planned this morning.

Rumors of some monsters on the loose had been circulating around. Mortals were convinced that there was some bear or something in the park, and tourism had been dropping off by the day. Of course, the bear was probably a monster twisted into a wild animal through the work of the Mist, but the current park manager, whom I was pretty sure was a legacy of Ceres, had actually written a full letter and addressed it to the Hunters, although I had no idea how it actually gotten to us.

“Keep your eyes open,” said Thalia, turning around to face the group, silver circlet flashing in the faded, midday light. “We don’t know what we're looking for.”

We had left the paved trail at least forty-five minutes ago, and were still walking. The fact that mortals' eyes swept right past us was a bit disorienting and strange, especially when they crossed our path early on to sneak behind the fences and take pictures inside front-hollow trees. Ceres probably didn’t appreciate that.

Now, trekking through untamed underbrush, and wondering what laid ahead, everyone was feeling a little bit prickly. It had not rained for many nights, and the ground underfoot that was solid on the tamed, paved trails, was dry, dusty, and overall very unappealing.

“So we’ve heard,” said Hunter. She was one of the first, well,  _ Hunters _ that I met, and seemingly her name was just a coincidence.

“Thalia is correct,” said Artemis, looking at us. Her cold eyes reflected the moon even when not at night, and though she had chosen a young form, she still radiated authority. “There is something out there, and it is our job to see it gone.”

Aurum yipped in agreement.

I had brought both Aurum and Argentum with me, because I had no other place to leave them and I couldn't even think of parting with them. Even made of metal, they had excellent senses.

Argentum bounded ahead, growling. His silvery head whipped around in different directions and his ruby eyes glittered.

“What is it?” I asked. My fingers slid over to my Imperial gold sword hilt by my side out of habit before realizing I should at least try with a bow instead.

I was still adjusting to the change of weapons. The Hunters of Artemis mainly used bows and arrows, but a couple of the girls carried hunting knives, too. I was one of very few who had swords. My archery skills were decent, but I still found it a lot easier to use the weapon I had been training with for the majority of my life.

Aurum stalked forward, following Argentum’s lead. Now they were both snarling, tails low to the ground, not bothered by the arid earth they kicked up.

“I think whatever we’re looking for is close,” I said. “Aurum and Argentum are never wrong.” From experience, I knew I could trust both of them with my life. I had, multiple times. 

Both of them kept their shining, gemstone eyes on the forest ahead.

“Formation!” Thalia called. Everyone formed a circle, back to back, arrows knocked. Leaves rustled, seemingly coming from all different directions. Uneven ground, raised in some parts by piles of dirt and sand, gave us a rough terrain to focus on.

There was a collective breath as we waited. Nothing.

Then, an explosion of leaves and sand.

Out of the dry, shriveled underbrush slithered horrific, snake-like monsters. They twisted and turned on the ground, bending and slithering in ways that made you freeze up, almost like they lacked a spine. Each was about a meter long, and had very pale, white-yellow scales, marred by red stripes across their backs, like brush strokes on a rather sinister painting. The strangest part was the horns. The largest ones of the group, or whatever a bunch of snakes was called, had two, curly, ram-like horns. The others had four smaller, straight ones. They burst out from under piles of dried leaves that had fallen early and from the parched dirt.

“What are they?” someone asked.

“Cerastes,” muttered Artemis, thoughtfully to herself. “They ambush their prey.”

“Well, we’re ambushed, my lady!” said Hunter, trying to escape the rapidly advancing reptiles and almost tripping over herself.

“Fire!” cried Thalia.

A volley of arrows whooshed downwards, but the cerastes were extremely quick. Not only that, they were almost contortionists. I felt the slap of the string against my arm, because apparently membership to the Hunters did not come with an armguard. I noted that the cerastes made a rustling sound as they moved in their sinuous fashion.

Instead, I pulled out my imperial gold sword, which sent dazzling, sparkling light onto the foliage nearby and reflected two glowing serpentine eyes back at me. 

Swiftly twisting and slicing backwards, I felt a hot and heavy mass slide onto my boot. It was a decapitated cerastes head. Mildly disgusting.

The very first thing I wanted to do was kick it off me, but instead I took a moment to inspect the mouth for fangs. And indeed there were fangs: two long ones protruding from the upper jaw, straight and curved, and probably poisonous, too. 

Thankfully, it quickly disintegrated into dust and drifted away on the wind to Tartarus before I felt the urge to observe it some more. 

Looking behind me, I saw Thalia trying to contend with multiple cerastes in front of her, but she didn’t see the one winding its way up behind her up her leg.

“Thalia!” I shouted. “Snake behind you!”

Swiveling her head, she grabbed it with one hand as it attempted to slide up higher. She yanked it off just as it was about to sink its fangs into her, which instead latched onto the side of her pants and yanked out a good deal of the stitching.

“Thanks,” she replied breathlessly.

I nodded as I watched Aurum tear a cerastes in half. 

A swarm of the snake monsters popped up suddenly from the ground.

“Hold formation!” called Artemis, but it was too late. Even though the Hunters of Artemis were granted eternal youth, enhanced physical prowess, and a little zoolingualism, it was still just as difficult to hold formation in a difficult position as it had been before joining the Hunters of Artemis.

Everyone was scattering, trying to avoid stepping on the cerastes. A few girls were clinging onto tree trunks and trying to fire down on the melee from above. I looked up at the trees with a couple seconds Argentum had bought me by yanking the horns off a cerastes.

The trees were wide, with thick trunks and rough, reddish bark. The only branches were too high up to reach, and the light could barely seep through the dense foliage above. 

There was one important question, though: could cerastes climb trees?

I decided to find out.

“Hey, snake monsters,” I called, grabbing onto the nearest trunk, which I found to a little surprise I could pull myself up. “Over here!”

Artemis looked at me skeptically. “Is this a diversion?”

“That was the idea,” I said.

It took a few seconds, but then their thin, beady eyes were all concentrated on me as I slowly pulled myself up the trunk, the rough bark scraping into my palms. 

Slowly, the cerastes began to slither over towards the base of the tree trunk. My heart pounded as I looked up. The first branches were way, way too far up against the tree. I couldn’t count on the foliage to hide me from view.

So, you’re probably wondering if cerastes can climb trees.

Well, yes they can.

Somewhat.

A large cerastes wound its way up the side of a trunk. My heart nearly stopped as it twisted it’s way upwards in a spiral. Suddenly, it stopped, unable to go further, and fell back to the ground below, where it hissed and buried itself in the dirt.

I looked at Artemis questioningly.

“They are native to more arid, desert-like conditions,” she explained. “How they got into a state park is a question that we cannot answer right now. I assume this means they lack the strength and ability to ascend trees the way common jungle snakes can.”

I reached for my bow with one trembling hand. My thighs burned from the uncomfortable I was gripping the tree, but I couldn’t come down because the cerastes had formed a ring around the base.

A couple Hunters were using the opportunity to silently pick off straggling cerastes under Thalia’s quiet command. I caught her eye. 

“Put your bow away,” she said. “We don’t want them to scatter.”

I put my bow back, but slipped a couple inches down in the process. All those serpentine eyes swiveled upward onto me.

I looked at Thalia again. Even though she was younger, I still felt that she had a lot more experience in this world than I did. It was a strange feeling, not being the one everyone depended on and looked up to. It felt like I was missing something from my life, but it was also somewhat relaxing.

Thalia pointed to the tree next to me. My eyes widened.

“You want me to jump?”

She nodded.

I shifted into a more comfortable position.  _ Here goes nothing,  _ I thought, then pushed off from the side of the tree. There was something exhilarating about the secondary rush of wind, the feeling that there was nothing below you, and I enjoyed it a lot more than climbing up the side of a broadcast station tower.

Then I slammed into the side of the neighboring tree’s trunk. I scrabbled against it, trying to find a grip, and after sliding down a couple feet, I managed it.

“Wait,” I said. “But how did that help?”

My answer came in the form of arrows zipping into the midst of the cerastes. I guess I had been the temporary distraction.

“Thalia?” I said. “There are a lot of them. The distraction isn’t holding. You might have to get everyone up in the trees and pick them off like that.”

For the first time today, Thalia looked nervous. “You mean...climb the trees?”

“You’re afraid of heights?”

“Now is not the time,” said Artemis, expertly lining up two cerastes and finishing them off with one arrow.

I looked up to see how far the sun had moved while we’d been fighting. Instead of the sun, a creature circling high in the sky and blocking out the light caught my attention. It looked like a bird from down below, but as it flew down closer, I could see that it wasn’t.

Artemis’s gaze seemed to have tracked it down too.

“So,” she said. “Brother, you have felt the need to lend assistance?”

There was no response. I shot a questioning glance at Hunter, but she just shrugged and decapitated a cerastes with a flick of her hunting knives.

Everyone stopped and stared, with the exception of the cerastes, but I did catch a couple of them looking up in curiosity as the creature circled lower.

“What is that?” asked someone.

The creature was far more odd than the cerastes. It had a horse’s body from the rear, but an eagle’s head and wings in the front. It’s forelegs seemed somewhat clawed, and it’s sharp eyes swiveled in every direction.

“A Hippogryph,” said Artemis. “Sacred to my brother, Apollo.”

“It’s about time we got a hand. We helped restore him,” said Thalia. 

I was pretty sure I had heard of a Hippogryph somewhere before. “Aren’t those from Harry Potter?”

Artemis looked at me strangely. “What is ‘Harry Potter’?”

“Never mind,” I said.

The hippogryph, it turned out, was a formidable foe.

Upon landing, it reared and charged, shredding the cerastes into pieces with its claws even faster than Aurum and Argentum. It snatched them up in its beak, shaking them and throwing them across the clearing into trees, and tread on them with it’s hooves. 

Fighting alongside one was beyond strange, but it gave me the opportunity to slide down the tree, even though it did result in a lot of tears (with the exception of the cloak Aegis, which was virtually indestructible).

Back with my imperial gold sword once again, cutting through a crowd of confused, tangled cerastes all trying to escape the wrath of the hippogryph was a lot easier than what it had been. I shorn through them like blades of grass, and soon I was covered in what is best called ‘obliterated monster dust’.

The hippogryph stampeded through the crowd, and Hunters as well as cerastes scattered, all a little bit unsure about the new pest control and how tame it was.

Aurum barked and I spun around to see the noise. A huge cerastes with even bigger horns was staring straight back at me. I stumbled back a few steps. The horns were enormous and could gut me easily in one shove.

It started towards me, hissing with it’s forked tongue out. By instinct, I slashed out. It’s tongue fell to the floor.  _ Yuck. _

With one more swing, I sliced it in half before pausing to take a breath and look up. The rest of the Hunters of Artemis were finishing up, slicing apart straggling cerastes. Beneath the hippogryph’s claws was a huge pile of dust being slowly swept away on the wind. I wondered how many snakes that pile had been.

The hippogryph took a couple of steps, lowering its head in front of Artemis. Aurum and Argentum leaped up and licked it.

And just like that, Apollo paid back his due and we saved Muir Woods from tourism issues.


	5. I Accidentally Flood My College

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is going to be a little shorter because I always include space for a cover art page but sadly it doesn't show up on here. Also, this is going to be rather unrealistic cause I have no idea about how piping/plumbing works. Signing off now!

This was not my idea of an ideal life.

College at New Rome University was amazing: I went out with Annabeth for pizza every Friday night, I aced swim team, I hadn’t gotten a grade below a C+ for the first time ever, and Annabeth and I had also managed to persuade Chris and Clarisse to do a year of college at New Rome.

In other words, everything was going great.

So why was I complaining? Well, strangely, being in this happy, peaceful reality was so weird it felt really off. I always brought Riptide in pen form around with me, but there was not even a single monster to vaporize. Not being on my guard all the time made me more restless, though that was getting better, and my brain didn’t want to process the fact that we were relatively safe.

It was just  _ too _ good.

In the beginning, I had sucked it up and reveled in the awesomeness of not having a threat to your life constantly, but now, I found a use for a word I didn’t think about very often:  _ B-O-R-E-D. Bored?  _ You ask.

Yes, dear reader. Bored.

Boredom is not a good study partner. 

I kept tapping my pencil against the desk, trying to stare at the book in front of me. Words. In small text. Me. Supposed to memorize this stuff.

Even though New Rome University was designed with demigods in mind, rendering the place nearly screen-free, that didn’t mean we didn’t have to pass the regular tests. Which meant we still had to read the same stuff.

“Annabeth,” I groaned. “Where are you when I need your help with coursework?”

“Right here, seaweed brain,” she said.

Annabeth was standing in the open doorway, looking amused. I couldn’t believe she got all of her architecture work done so quickly, but somehow she did it all, even when she stayed up late and had bags under her eyes which glittered with satisfaction upon completing it.

“Can you help me?” I asked.

“I don’t take marine biology!” she said. “I don’t know what you’ve been doing and I don’t intend to read that giant packet for you either.”

“But Annabeth,” I protested.

“Nope.”

“Please?”

“Don’t want to hear it.”

I sighed. Unlike Annabeth, I really could not deal with the stress. She made it look super easy.

“You’re useless.”

“Excuse me,” she said, putting her hands on her hips. “Who bought you pizza last week? Who saved your life times beyond count?”

“Jeez, wise girl. Calm down.”

“Dinner today, okay?” said Annabeth, relenting her pursuit. “Don’t you forget.”

“Mhm,” I said absentmindedly.

The door squeaked as Annabeth left, turning the lights off behind her as per her habit. Outside, the sky was casting a faint orange glow, the first sign that sunset was not too many hours away. We usually had our take-out dinners at around seven.

I stared back down on the words that swam before my eyes. 

“Not funny,” I told the words. 

The words kept wriggling around, and I kept pressing my page close and closer to the fat book until my nose was practically touching the pages. I wondered vaguely if glasses would help.

I drew my highlighter over different sentences that seemed important, although I’m pretty sure I accidentally highlighted some random, irrelevant stuff, too. My hand didn’t want to keep holding the highlighter straight, and the lamplight was searing into my eyes, making little sparks dance in my vision. Studying was definitely the worst part about maintaining an education.

I put my head down on the book.

_ One word more!  _ Begged a nagging voice in the back of my brain.

_ Nap,  _ said my more reasonable side.

The argument in my head went back and forth, and I wondered if this is what it felt like when the Greek and Roman versions of the same gods had gotten a sort of split personality disorder.

“Shut  _ up, _ ” I told myself. I stood up, feeling stiff, and went to the bathroom, where I turned on the faucet to full water volume (I’m sorry if I was wasting water, but being a child of Poseidon, does it really matter?) and splashed the extremely cold tap water in my face. 

“Stop.”

I whirled around. Who was that?

“It’s me, you idiot.”

“Who?” I said, proving the unknown speaker’s point.

“The water,” said the water.

I’d talked to a couple of rivers and naids before, but clearly whatever spirit was in the college tap water was miniscule. The small stream of sink water had begun to form sort of an abstract, not entirely human shape, but with human enough features.

“The...water.” I echoed.

“You know, from the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir,” said the tap water.

I snickered for a moment at that, then stopped. “Wait. You’re not kidding?”

The tap water figure crossed their arms. “No. But let’s make a deal. I forgive you, and you free me.”

“Hold up.” I took a step back. “Hetchy, no.”

“Do  _ not  _ call me Hetchy!” shouted the water figure.

“Okay, Hetchy,” I said. “But there is no way I’m letting all of your pipe water out.”

Just then, a shout came from outside the door. My muddled brain went into overdrive, and the next thing I knew, the door was being slammed open and I was standing in a puddle of water. The tap was overflowing and Hetchy was doing a little dance over the drain.

“No, no no,” I said, trying to scoop up the water and dump it back into the sink. “Not now!” I attempted to focus and stop the tap flow.

“I can’t believe it!”

I turned to see Annabeth standing with an irritated expression on her face. “I told you not to forget dinner! Are you aware of the time, Percy?”

“I-Annabeth, now is not the greatest time,” I said.

“Oh, yes it is,” she said angrily.

Then I completely lost control of the water.

The sinks and toilets exploded, reminding me of my first day at Camp Half-Blood. This was a significantly less wonderful day. The pipes above my head busted, spurting water everywhere. The water spilled out down onto the tiled floor, flooding and making a grand escape by nearly sweeping Annabeth away.

“Hetchy, no!” I shouted, after the tide pouring out of the open door.

“Who is ‘Hetchy’?” screamed Annabeth, trying to grab onto the door handle.

“The water!” I shouted back. “The tap water!”

“You’re more insane than I thought,” said Annabeth. “Oh, they’re going to expel us for sure.”

“Us?!” I spluttered. “They’re going to kill me!”

I thought that maybe life in New Rome would be a new leaf. I guess not, if everyone knew I’d made a giant flood.

Wait.

_ If  _ everyone knew….

“Annabeth,” I said. “We’ve got fifteen minutes to sort this out so no one knows. Then, we’ll have our pizza.”

She folded her arms disapprovingly. “Fine.”

“Great,” I said.

I grabbed her arm, willed her dry, then yanked her out of the door, splashing down the hall. We skidded to a halt at the edge of the stairwell. The door didn’t have a lock, and if the force was enough, the water could flood and damage the building.

“Dad,” I muttered. “Some help now would be great.”

“Percy,” said Annabeth. “The entire floor is going to be flooded really soon.”

I closed my eyes and concentrated, trying to create a sort of water vacuum. I’d done lots of things with water before, but usually I was unleashing it, not trying to control a rogue tap water system.

The water sloshed around my legs as I drew it upwards, lifting it droplet by droplet up from the hallway floor. I held it upwards at my eye level. 

“It looks like rain,” remarked Annabeth, squeezing out her shirt.

“Yeah, that’s great and all,” I said. “But this is tiring, and I don’t know where to put all this water.”

She looked at me like I was crazy. “Back from wherever you released it from.”

“I didn’t release it!” I protested. “Also, won’t the sinks explode or something if I put this much water back into the all at once?”

“Then water the plants or something,” she said. “Is there any water left on this floor?”

On cue, I heard the sound of someone aggressively hitting a drinking fountain. “Why doesn’t this thing work?!”

“Um….no,” I said. 

Annabeth sighed. “We can try going to the room where all the pipes connect to.”

“Great,” I said, straining under the weight of the water droplets. “Let’s do that.” I followed her down the flight of stairs to a back room that said MAINTENANCE STAFF ONLY and opened the door. Inside were a whole lot of pipes.

“Which one?” I asked.

Annabeth went around, inspecting each one for labels. “They need to be better organized,” she muttered. “I think it’s this one.”

“Okay,” I said. Annabeth twisted the knob, and a spray of water erupted, nearly knocking us both over.

“Do something!” said Annabeth.

“I am!” I shouted. Trying to control water from multiple sources with different pressures was a challenge I wasn’t sure I liked. I pressed down mentally on the stream from the pipe, making it gurgle down to a soft bubble. Pushing that water aside, I funneled the droplets back into the pipe. Annabeth leaped at the knob and twisted it tightly.

“Those better not explode,” I said.

“You know what else is going to explode?” she asked. “Me, without pizza.”

“Okay,” I said, grinning. “New Rome University, saved. Let’s get dinner.”


End file.
